In the apartment management business it usually starts with
a phone call…
We had a building in Central California a few years
ago. We were on our 3rd management company and by this time and I realized
I better take it over myself. We were having rent collection problems, only 5
of the 14 units were paying rent. Our previous management company had not
supervised their on site manager properly, and she loaded up the building with
tenants who had no job and no ability to pay a second monthly rent. The manager
then stole the initial deposits and the few rents paid, so it fell to me to
stop by and speak to the tenants in person.
When I pulled up the tenants were all outside their units,
each waiting with their individual complaints. I had been told we had an
“alleged” gang member, but I thought, no big deal, I can reason with him. Let’s
refer to him as unit #2. How did he get into a unit you ask? He was on his
girlfriends lease listed as “boyfriend.” He provided no social security number
and his credit was never checked.
I saw him standing patiently in the corner. Looking back,
making him wait his turn in front of the other tenants may not have been my
finest hour. I was busy trying to look and act brave, but facing off nine angry
tenants who were not paying rent is quite an experience. The alleged shirtless gang
member was tattooed from top to bottom. He explained to me that his swamp
cooler was not working properly and the hot water was slow coming online. These
two issues are what is called a “Breach of the implied warranty of habitability
for their failure to tender rent per the rental agreement.” Bad news for any
landlord.
We gave out 9 three day notices to pay rent or quit. Unit #2 did not pay his rent as requested. Fast forward a few days and I get another call:
Most of the tenants have now moved out on their own. Apparently Unit #2 had
been swinging around a baseball bat and shooting his squirt gun at the tenants
whenever they opened their doors. The only tenants that stayed were friends of Unit
#2’s. We made the decision to start unit #2’s eviction. We hired the best
eviction lawyer we could get: $1,200.
Soon after we served Unit #2, he obtained my home phone
number and the threatening phone calls started. This was the beginning of my
weight loss. I would worry day and night, getting up in the morning dreading
what would be the newest bad news. His first call to me was really chilling. Unit
#2 informed me that he was taking over the building, then he made some veiled
threats, but nothing you could really put your finger on. He also informed me
he was recording my calls, had a high priced
lawyer, and he was considering suing us for
discrimination.
I still had some confidence we could handle Unit #2 at this
time because we had met with the city gang task force, who let me know they
were on the job. I thought O.K., no problem; the police will handle this and they are on my side. The gang task force wanted all
the information we had, which we were more than willing to give them. We later
found out that without someone actually coming forward and fingering Unit #2
with some infraction that they had witnessed, the police were powerless.
Didn’t you write letters and make calls asking for help you
ask? Yes, we wrote 8 letters, from the Governor on down the list to the chief
of police and the Mayor explaining our situation and begging for help. How
many responses would you guess we received? Zero. I cannot fault any these city
and state officials, my guess is they are buried in endless gang problems with
a lack of personnel and limited financial resources.
After numerous threatening calls from Unit #2, trying to
deal with him and offering him money to move, we finally had an eviction court
date. Talk about raw fear, I could visualize a 14 year old gang member sticking
a knife in my side and getting away with no penalty. I actually hired an armed
guard to escort me to and from court. I got in late the night before court and
checked into a hotel, dreading my next day’s court appearance. I woke up in the
middle of the night for a bathroom break and saw moving shadows under the front
door. I froze, thinking Unit #2’s minions had tracked me down, only to realize
I was looking at my own shadow, backlit under the door.
I met my guard in the morning and we headed to court. It was
jammed. I was standing by a lawyer and I asked her what happened to all
the good tenants? She informed me that a lot of the Farm jobs were gone. “The Bush administration, in December 2008, agreed to divert
more than 150 billion gallons of water from the fertile Central
Valley to the San Joaquin Delta in an effort to protect the
endangered Delta smelt.” When the fish injunction took place the farming
stopped. You will be interested to know that now instead of vegetables and nuts;
one of the main cash crops is now marijuana.
Before presenting your case to the judge you meet with the
tenant to try a work out. Our lawyer came back
after this meeting and informed me Unit #2 was not going to make any deal. Our
case was called and we took our places in front of the judge. We had been told
we might get a “Gang Letter” from the police to present to the judge and help
our case, but unfortunately the letter never materialized, there was a problem
with the unit # on the letter and it was never received....Unit #2 stated that his
swamp cooler was not working at 100%, and he had a witness to corroborate his
story. I looked up at our lawyer and realized we just lost the case. The judge
gave Unit #2 a reduced rent rate until we made his unit “habitable,” and then he
would resume paying the full rent. Unit #2 was required to pay 1/3 of the total
back rent, and he showed up all smiles the next morning all smiles with his
$600 in cash.
Now the problems were really about to begin.
We started getting complaints about late night partying at
the building in the vacant units. We would call the police and the partier’s
would vanish before the police could get there. We found out later Unit #2 had
a police scanner that he would listen to 24 hours a day. Unit #2’s friends
proceeded to vandalize the vacant units at night, which now numbered 11.
Windows were broken, holes kicked in walls, toilets torn out. I soon got a call
from code enforcement explaining that Unit #2 was complaining to them that the
entire building was not habitable, and he was demanding an inspection. Code
enforcement also knew of Unit #2. The head code enforcement officer was
apologetic, but informed me he had to do his job. He brought 3 inspectors with
him and they spent all day at the building, writing us up.
Fortunately we had vandal insurance. That State Farm is a
first class company. Their rep came out and figured the damages at $32,000. We
thought we better start fixing this building up so we can collect some rents
even with unit #2 there, which we did. Keep in mind, it is illegal to turn off
the utilities to your building just because you have non-paying tenants, so it
was a race to fix the building, get some rents and start paying the mortgage
again. We started the fix up during the day, which then would get destroyed in
the night. The police scanner really came in handy. We soon stopped
attempting to make the repairs.
As you can imagine we were unable to make the mortgage
payments, and the lender foreclosed. The lender hired a management company to
handle unit #2, unsuccessfully I might add. The lender eventually sold the
building. I never heard from Unit #2 again. Now when I see a boarded up
apartment building I have a pretty good idea what happened. In answer to your
question, no, I was not able to keep the weight off
